As music educators, not much of our college experience is aimed at songwriting.
So here are some thoughts for teachers who want to get started, either writing songs for themselves or for their students.
The first thing is learn as many songs written by others as possible.
I’m talking about songs where you sing and accompany yourself.
The more songs you know – and I mean REALLY know – the easier it will be to progress as a songwriter.
So set a goal and aim for a number, say, learn at least one song a day. In a year, you’ll have a pretty extensive repertoire.
From jump street, start cataloging your song data.
Stay away from paper and create PDFs.
Gone are the days when I carried a milk crate with FOUR three-inch-three-ring binders with tons of music. Now I just have my tablet.
Get an app where you can keep all these PDFs organized.
I’m an Android kind of guy and have been using Zubersoft’s “MobileSheetsPro” and love it.
Keep an ever growing list of songs and the artists who popularized them.
Create PDFs of the lyrics, including the song title, the composers, and thee year it was composed.
I start with creating a Word doc and then import it as a PDF.
I keep two folders, one of Word doc lyrics and the other as a PDF folder.
If you need the music to play the songs, find a lead sheet and create a PDF of that too – but have a doc title ending with “music” so you won’t confuse it with the lyric pdf.
Find the best key for your voice and work hard at nailing the song down in that key. It might not be in the lead sheet’s key but learn how to transpose it into YOUR key.
Transposing is a key skill for songwriters and you might as well start bolstering that skill.
With every song you learn, learn the song in at least three other keys.
Eventually, you want to play any song in any key.
This is not just some kind of macho music chops thing.
As a songwriter, you need the flexibility to shift into any key that a song pulls you, even if just for a few measures.
Without a strong knowledge of keys and transposing, you’ll always be ruled by the song. You need the upper hand to be able to put any song into any key on a second’s notice.
So here are some thoughts for teachers who want to get started, either writing songs for themselves or for their students.
The first thing is learn as many songs written by others as possible.
I’m talking about songs where you sing and accompany yourself.
The more songs you know – and I mean REALLY know – the easier it will be to progress as a songwriter.
So set a goal and aim for a number, say, learn at least one song a day. In a year, you’ll have a pretty extensive repertoire.
From jump street, start cataloging your song data.
Stay away from paper and create PDFs.
Gone are the days when I carried a milk crate with FOUR three-inch-three-ring binders with tons of music. Now I just have my tablet.
Get an app where you can keep all these PDFs organized.
I’m an Android kind of guy and have been using Zubersoft’s “MobileSheetsPro” and love it.
Keep an ever growing list of songs and the artists who popularized them.
Create PDFs of the lyrics, including the song title, the composers, and thee year it was composed.
I start with creating a Word doc and then import it as a PDF.
I keep two folders, one of Word doc lyrics and the other as a PDF folder.
If you need the music to play the songs, find a lead sheet and create a PDF of that too – but have a doc title ending with “music” so you won’t confuse it with the lyric pdf.
Find the best key for your voice and work hard at nailing the song down in that key. It might not be in the lead sheet’s key but learn how to transpose it into YOUR key.
Transposing is a key skill for songwriters and you might as well start bolstering that skill.
With every song you learn, learn the song in at least three other keys.
Eventually, you want to play any song in any key.
This is not just some kind of macho music chops thing.
As a songwriter, you need the flexibility to shift into any key that a song pulls you, even if just for a few measures.
Without a strong knowledge of keys and transposing, you’ll always be ruled by the song. You need the upper hand to be able to put any song into any key on a second’s notice.
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